1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a control method for printing and a printing apparatus in which a plurality of images is sequentially printed on a continuous sheet.
2. Description of the Related Art
Voluminous printing such as photo printing uses a rolled continuous sheet. Such a continuous sheet may include unique portions such as stains or sheet joining (splice) portions which exhibit characteristics partly different from the characteristics of the sheet. If an image is printed on such a unique portion, a user's unwanted printed matter may be output.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-46260 describes a printing apparatus which detects a splice portion on a sheet to determine a predetermined area on the sheet including the splice portion to be an image print disabled area and which prints an image in an area other than the image print disabled area.
Customers have recently demanded printing of images of various sizes and particularly longer images. However, the printing apparatus described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-46260 may unavoidably print an image in a print disabled area including a splice portion if the image to be printed is large. That is, when a detection section located on an upstream side in a sheet conveying direction detects a splice portion on the sheet, a printing section located on a downstream side in the sheet conveying direction may have already started printing an image to be printed on a print area including the print disabled area. In such a case, printing an image in the print disabled area is unavoidable, and discriminating this image from other normal images is cumbersome.